The bad first: I was very, very nearly hit by a bus, I´m now sick and can´t breathe, my body aches, and I sliced my thumb open with my Swiss Army knife trying to fix my sunglasses. But it was pretty much all worth it.
The bus to get to Baños took about 3.5 hours, as it kept stopping in every single pueblo. Once we got there, we discovered it is more of a tourist city than others we´ve been to. We took advantage of that and the low cost of living in Ecuador and signed up for horseback riding and a volcano night tour.
We had gorgeous, non-Quito weather all weekend. Horseback riding was awesome and the trail went through the town and to one of the 60 waterfalls around the volcano. The night tour sadly did not involve any lava like the pictures implied. We did get a birds-eye view of Baños though, and I had some hot chocolate that should make Katie very jealous.
Me on my horse, María
Sunday we attempted to relax in the hot springs, but the one we went to was pretty much just a mineral-y lukewarm public pool, so we decided to rent go-karts and drive "La Ruta de Las Cascadas." When they say go-karts they mean dune-buggys that you can drive for miles on windy mountain passages. It was amazing and we got to stop at about 6 different waterfalls, including one with a cable car to the bottom and one which is acclaimed to be the 8th wonder of the world (Pailón del Diablo). Ecuador is just full of surprises. El Pailón del Diablo involved hiking up and down a mountain and crawling through a rocky tunnel, hence the soreness.
Dune buggys
one of many waterfalls
Ravit, me, and Donna at Pailón del Diablo
After a long, bumpy ride in the back of the bus, I got back to a dark, foggy Quito, played some cards with Doña Ana Maria, and fell asleep.
Hot chocolate is the way to make me jealous. You're saying its better than that amazingly delicious mayan hot chocolate?!?!
ReplyDeletei think they have a very similar recipe
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